Astronomers have caught a glimpse of a formerly undiscovered planet orbiting around Earth’s closest star system.

A bright dot spotted in the region of Alpha Centauri A is garnering hopes that there might be planets far closer to our solar system than we know, but researchers looking into the ‘planetary candidate’ have stressed that just this sighting is not sufficient to confirm a discovery of a new planet.

Alpha Centauri A is one of two stars in a binary system which is just 4.37 light years from Earth, which in the colossal scheme of things is nothing more than a hop and a skip away, so it’s not surprising that even a minute glimmer hope for a new planet has got astronomers ecstatic.

The potential discovery was made as part of an ongoing global project called ‘Breakthrough Watch’ which is trying to uncover possible Earth-like planets around Alpha Centauri and other relatively close star systems.